Three key takeaways from CXI 2017 — the largest branding conference in Europe
Being a software company creating brand management tools, we are deeply involved in the exciting field that is the branding industry. To be able to create a relevant service for today’s market, it’s essential to understand the current and future needs of our present and potential clients — following the latest trends of the market.
Therefore, being part of major design and branding conferences is a fundamental element in our product strategy. With that in mind, we decided to fill our bags with curiosity and head north to the CXI, located in the picturesque city of Bielefeld, Germany.
Now, after using the weekend to contemplate what we’ve noticed and absorbed, we’ve compiled three key takeaways from the inspiring conference in the German city residing somewhere between forests and hills.
1. The branding industry seems to be very much offline
As we sit in the conference room, second row, with 800 people behind us, we’re surprised to see no laptops. No phones. No nothing. Are we the only ones searching for wifi? With a crowd made up of (probably) 80% branding and design students, the two of us still managed to accumulate roughly 99.9% of all the live Tweets.
2. Brand consistency is still the key metric
Yes, for most people in this industry; this is old news. But as we listened to highly effective brands such as Sennheiser, and Moia, speaking about their branding processes, the way they improved and built inspiring appearances with bullseye accuracy, while preserving a harmonious brand — we were reaffirmed that sticking to your principles certainly does drive business success.
3. “Good design” = willingness to pay ”that little extra”
A decent design drives the strategic product development and helps the positioning of the brand itself. Creating a unified and communicative design will encourage customers to pay more for the service. We saw the way that Bold attended to the sprawling design of SAS. Creating a modern, high-end look, focused on quality and community — securing the SAS clientele, and practically saving the entire company from bankruptcy in 2014. That’s the power of branding.
What were your takeaways from the conference? We’d love to start a little discussion right below.
